I can’t get routines to work with any device when my trigger is a simulated contact sensor or the Alexa sensor DTH from this thread. Simulated sensors show that they change state in Alexa, but are just not triggering devices as they should from the routine. The weird part is that when I “play” the routine in the Alexa app, everything works as it should.

Assuming that you are in the US or the UK, If you read the thread above from the top you will see that a number of other people had the same problem. All you have to do is disable the smartthings skill, sign out of the Alexa app, sign back into the Alexa app, reenable the SmartThings skill, and everything should work. Again, see the discussion above.

I appreciate @Bamarayne’s enthusiasm for his new project, but it’s not needed for the issue that you describe as long as you are in one of the regions where Amazon has enabled this feature .

If you are in a different country, then I don’t know whether @bamarayne
project will work or not, but you can take discussion of it to that thread and I’m sure he will be glad to go into details. That’s getting off topic for this FAQ.

Today we are pleased to announce the public release of Echo Speaks.
With only a few minutes of your time, you can now integrate your Amazon Echo Devices into your SmartThings Environment. YES! you can see them in the Things list and add them to almost any
smartapp available.
Current Features:
Make announcements based on any ST event
Play intro music when someone arrives,
Trigger weather/traffic reports,
Create Alarms or Reminders based on any ST event
There are a ton of possibilities.
(WebCoRE is currently the only app to be able to utilize the more advanced features like music searching and creating Alarms/timers.
Developers: Please contact us if you have any questions about how the devices work or integrating
into your work.
To install either use the community installer or visi…

bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
2018-11-15 03:17:02 UTC
#207

I just want to clarify that @Tonesto7 is the developer of this great product. I am simply his assistant.

I thought it was applicable because with it, you do not need the Amazon service. It is very limited in it’s capabilities. With this app you can use any trigger available in ST.

Mentioning it and providing the link to the thread about it is fine. But it’s way more complicated than the official feature and it requires setting up a heroku account and it requires being willing to look at long lists of technical options.

This FAQ is about the official feature. It does a lot less, but it’s easier to set up and use. For many people, that will be enough.

bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
2018-11-15 03:38:59 UTC
#209

JDRoberts:

But it’s way more complicated than the official feature and it requires setting up a heroku account and it requires being willing to look at long lists of technical options.

Actually, the install process is almost fully automated. Registering for the Heroku account is simple and done during the process. 5 to 10 minutes even for a completely non-technical person.

The short answer is any Device that works with smartthings can trigger a voice announcement on echo now, but at the present time you have to do it by the method described above in this FAQ: create a virtual contact sensor that is also a switch, have your physical device turn that contact sensor on through a smartthings automation, have that contact sensor activating trigger the echo routine.

For a longer answer with more discussion of specific devices, please start your own thread under projects and people will be happy to brainstorm with you.